I have a pretty large collection of aviation books and It struck me the other day that I have seen only 1 picture of the Northrop entry that lost it to the F-117.

However, Lockheed accoding to Ben Rich had designed basically a smaller version of the winning Northrop plane for the bomber comp. I have never seen a picture of it. I have always wondered if it was the basis for the TR-3A flying wing rumors.

Considering planes like Tacit Blue et al are now open, why the lack of even a picture or artist rendering of the failed Lockheed design?

Does anybody have a picture of either of these planes?
Thanks

Cool, I have the Northrop pic, but I would love to see a pic of the actual RCS testing model.

I was searching but there doesn't seem to be a lot of these pics out there I couldn't find anything from the testing stages. Anyone else have better luck than me?

The other part of that story was the pole was giving a return higher that the aircraft. Lockheed designed a new pole that did not show up as much. TOne of Northrops directors turned to John Cashen, thier stealth guru and said "If they can do that with the friggen pole, what can they do with the model?"

Originally posted by ghost
I knew that they existed! Here are some pictures of Lockeed's ATB, which was Code Named Senior Peg:
According to a book I have on the history of the B-2, the Northorp design won the crontract because it held a signifigante advantage in Stealth, Range and Payload over the Lockheed design, and because Northrop has a significant edge in experince with the flying wing design over Lockheed.

Great find TIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ben Rich's autobio paints a different picture (not surprising) he states the Skunk Works model was the stealthier of the two, but the Northrop model had the edge in payload and range. The AF told him that the went with the Northrup design becuase 1 could do the job of 2 Lockheed models and thus have more risk. If this is true maybe they spread the wealth a little and did not want all of thier stealth eggs in one basket.

What an interesting thread. I had never thought about the aircraft that were competing against the F-117 and the B-2.

Does anyone know if Lockheed actually built a test version of there flying wing? Or did it not get past the design stage? Same with the Northrop F-117 equivalent. It looks like they built a test model, but did they have an actual working aircraft?

It would be great to get more info (and pictures!) on both the designs from Lockheed and Northrop. I guess there wasn't much info released about them since they were black projects back in the day, but since the B-2 and F-117 are well known now. I wonder if one could contact both of them and ask if they could release more info on those failed projects?

Ghost that looks like a 1950's Design. For Lockheeds ATB, maybe even 40's.

Originally posted by jra
Does anyone know if Lockheed actually built a test version of there flying wing? Or did it not get past the design stage? Same with the Northrop F-117 equivalent. It looks like they built a test model, but did they have an actual working aircraft?

We know that the Northrop AST project got as far as a pole model as did the Lockheed ATB. Neither one was made into a actual flying model. However, I know people disagree with me on this one. But there may be a link with the Lockheed model and the TR-3A

Tacit Blue helped Northrop with the concept of Curved Stealth. However, there is some evidence that the plane was used operationaly in Iran. It does look like Tacit Blue in the picture.

In June, a UFO was photographed by 16-year-old Jamshid Saiadipour in the town of Sheraz.
The photo caused a stir among ufologists because it resembled a UFO reported by pilots during their landing approach to the Teheran airport earlier in the year.
On October 8, the same year,1978, a similar craft was photographed was photographed by young Franklin Youri outside his home near Lake Urmia in western Iran.

Originally posted by FredT
Tacit Blue helped Northrop with the concept of Curved Stealth. However, there is some evidence that the plane was used operationaly in Iran. It does look like Tacit Blue in the picture.

In June, a UFO was photographed by 16-year-old Jamshid Saiadipour in the town of Sheraz.
The photo caused a stir among ufologists because it resembled a UFO reported by pilots during their landing approach to the Teheran airport earlier in the year.
On October 8, the same year,1978, a similar craft was photographed was photographed by young Franklin Youri outside his home near Lake Urmia in western Iran.

Maybe it was developed into some kind of spy plane. Remember, it was origionally built to for survallance.

Tim
ATS Directer of Counter-Ignorace

Originally posted by ghost
Maybe it was developed into some kind of spy plane. Remember, it was origionally built to for survallance.

Maybe 1978 the Shaw was still in controll. Maybe they flew against Soviet Radar Systems to test it in a real world environment?